<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<title>Top Draw Viewer</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="Top Draw.css" />
</head>
<body>
<h1>Introduction</h1>
Top Draw Viewer is the companion program to the <a href="TopDraw.html">Top Draw</a>.
Both programs will evaluate a JavaScript based script to create an image
that can be set as the Desktop Picture.  Scripts can be downloaded or created and placed
in a common folder on your computer.  Several example scripts are included with the application and automatically installed into:
<pre>
~/Library/Application Support/Google/TopDraw/Scripts
</pre>

<p>
The application runs as a Status Item, which means that there is no front window
or icon in the dock.  Instead, there will be a colored shape in the menu bar to indicate the
current status (idle or rendering).  If you click on the item, it will display
a menu similar to this menu:
<p>
<div>
<img class="RightEdge" src="Images/menu.png"/>

<table class="Menu" border="1">
<tr>
<th class="Menu">Menu Item</th>
<th class="Menu">Description</th>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="MenuItem">About...</td>
<td class="Menu">Version and other details</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="MenuItem">Render</td>
<td class="Menu"> If you select just the menu item, it will
render the currently active script (as shown below this item).  Otherwise, you can
choose another item from the popup menu list.</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="MenuItem" style="color: gray;">Render...</td>
<td class="Menu">The name of the currently
active script and the remaining time until it is rendered is listed.  In this example,
the script "Pattern" will be rendered and installed as your desktop in about 4 minutes and 36 seconds.</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="MenuItem">Preferences...</td>
<td class="Menu">Set the script, update interval, etc. as described below.</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="MenuItem">Launch Top Draw</td>
<td class="Menu">Open the Top Draw application.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="MenuItem">Help with Top Draw Viewer</td>
<td class="Menu">This documentation.</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="MenuItem">Quit</td>
<td class="Menu">Quit Top Draw Viewer.</td>
</tr>

</table>
</div>

<p>

<h1>Preferences</h1>
Top Draw has several user configurable preferences to control the scripts to 
render, the rate of refresh, and the appearance of the Status Item.  The
preferences window will look similar to this:
<p>
<div>
<img class="RightEdge" src="Images/preferences.png"/>

<table class="Preferences" border="1">
<tr>
<th class="Preferences">Preference</th>
<th class="Preferences">Description</th>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="PreferenceItem">Script&nbsp;Folder</td>
<td class="Preferences">The location of the folder on your computer that contains the Top Draw Script (TDS, extension ".tds") files 
to be used by Top Draw when rendering Desktop images.  Only files ending in .tds will be read.  Top Draw will not read files from any folders in that directory.
</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="PreferenceItem">Script</td>
<td class="Preferences">The chosen script to render.  If you've selected the "Randomly chosen" checkbox, one of the scripts contained in your Script Folder will be chosen at random for each rendering.  Also, the Script menu will be disabled.  Clicking on the "Try it!" button to cause the currently selected (or a random one if configured) script to render.
</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="PreferenceItem">Refresh</td>
<td class="Preferences">The desktop can be refreshed at a variety of intervals (seconds, minutes, hours).  Additionally, you
can have it update when your computer starts up or even every time that you wake it from from sleeping.
</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="PreferenceItem">Menu Indicator</td>
<td class="Preferences">The appearance of the image drawing in the menubar can be customized.  You may choose the color to be drawn
when idle or actively rendering a desktop.  You may also choose a pleasing geometric shape: rectangle, square, circle, or triangle.  It's up to you!
</td>
</tr>

</table>
</div>

<h1>Top Draw Scripts</h1>
Top Draw reads Top Draw Script (.tds) files and renders them into images which are installed on your desktop.  The Top Draw application
contains a ZIP archive of several example script files.  When the program is first launched, it will extract and copy the scripts
into 
<pre>
~/Library/Application Support/Google/TopDraw/Scripts
</pre>

<p>
If you're not interested in programming, you can visit the Top Draw project <a href="http://code.google.com/p/topdraw/wiki/Gallery">Wiki Gallery</a> site and download new script files.  You can then copy those files into the Script Folder that you've configured Top Draw to use.  If you open the Preferences window, the new script(s) will be available for your selection.
<p>
The scripts use the JavaScript programming language, with enhancements, to provide the instructions to render.  If you'd like to learn more about these, please see the <a href="TopDraw.html">Top Draw</a> documentation.

<h1>Requirements</h1>
Top Draw requires a Macintosh computer running Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later.

<h1>Miscellaneous</h1>
Top Draw was written by <a href="maito:waylonis@gmail.com">Dan Waylonis</a> in 2008.
<p>
The most up-to-date versions can be found at Google's open source repository, as
the <a href="http://code.google.com/p/topdraw">Top Draw</a> project.
<p>
The program is open source and written in Objective-C using Apple's Xcode IDE.  It uses the JavaScriptCore, Quartz, and CoreImage frameworks.

</body>
</html>
